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"Got it. If things go sideways, I'm killing to protect us," Bucky warns her. "I don't play by your rules when it comes to that. You're too good at this shit for it to happen but I'm just warning you in advance."

She might get on his goddamned nerves but he doesn't want anything to happen to her and he's not nihilistic enough to try and end himself over some punk kid. Shoot to kill if he has to but for right now, shadow him and flank him.

"And I mean that," he says, before taking off.

Natalia had just opened her mouth to insist that he had to "play by her rules", as he put it, but the wolf took off before she could. She settled for muttering under her breath and heading off in the opposite direction, wondering just how bad of an idea this had actually been.

London even at this hour was still brightly lit and crowded; tourists and students frequented this part of the city more often than the locals, which was probably why the strig had managed to get himself identified and reported. Canvassing from above was her preferred method, however, so she didn't have to mingle with the crowds and fight the traffic on crowded streets.

"Anything?" she asked over the earpiece, pausing at an intersection to scan the groups below. "I'm coming up on...Bonnet and Chesapeake, what's your location?"

Opposite end of Chesapeake. I've got eyes on him. Chase or attack?

Bucky's been a soldier before and he knows the rules. In this, Natalia is his CO and he's not going to go too far off the plan unless someone is in grave (hah) danger. He has to take her lead on this or otherwise more than just she will be coming down on his ass and she'll probably get heat too.

Ready to comply with orders, Doll.

Doll? Well, at least he was following her direction, in any case. Pet names non-withstanding. "If you have a clean shot, take him. Keep him subdued until I get there. I'm moving out now."

And it wouldn't take her long to arrive. The rooftops were so close together in this particular part of town that it sometimes seemed like flying through the smoggy skies. But this was thrilling; a hunt, with or without blood at the end, and it stirred her blood regardless of her intention.

Part of her even hoped the obnoxious little bastard put up a fight.

Same part of Bucky hoped the punk put up a fight and strig or not, it's easy to circle him and get him cornered down in an alley away from collateral damage. Natalia's on her way and he has plenty to take the guy down if he has to. For now, he's playing, and it feels better than he wants to admit.

"You wanna fuck around and go rogue, that's it? Regret to inform you that I'm the good cop. The bitch that's on her way doesn't care about anything but getting you out of her hair. She's goddamn efficient, too, and you'll be nothing. Might as well just turn yourself in and save us the trouble."

The strig hisses at him and lunges, catching the sleeve of Bucky's jacket, but it's the left arm and he glances off the metal. Bucky shakes his head. "Never go for the left. Don't they teach you anything? I thought everyone knew who I was and everything."

Natalia paused before vaulting off of the roof's edge, just watching her "partner" handle the strig in the alley. Apparently he'd taken her warning to heart; the kid was still breathing and there weren't any civilians gawking nearby. Well and good so far.

So she landed not far from the pair, idly shaking red curls out of her face as she approached. "Been looking for you, lorry," she said to the snarling strig, still held in Bucky's iron grip. "Merry chase you gave me, too." Her glower sharpened. "Reports say you've been threatening the humans." She ignored the strig's evil hiss and dark glare. "And you know that's against the rules, mate."

Before either she or Bucky could blink, the strig had somehow vanished, leaving behind a dripping hunk of flesh in the lycanthrope's large hand. Natalia jerked back, startled, and swore in a few languages, snarling as she spied the goddamned bastard streaking for the main thoroughfare.

"Kill him!" she snarled, jerking into motion. "But only if you catch him first!"

Bucky doesn't need to be told twice. He dashes to cut off the strig from the crowd and nips at him (proverbially) until he can corner him down into a side street away from the people. He slams him against the brick of a building with his left arm, enjoying the squirm of the strig. Still, he needs to finish him off and luckily HYDRA had given him just the tool to do it.

He pins the strig's shoulder with his right arm and shoves his knee into his solar plexus to get leverage to rip off his head. It's messy, yeah, but he gets the job done.

Dead on arrival, darlin', and you didn't have to mess up your nails.

She scented the blood even before she arrived. And when she did, it was to a satisfying scene: Bucky standing over the still-leaking body of a dead strigoi, the git's head lying some yards away, eyes wide and mouth permanently frozen in an O of surprise. Natalia strode past it, inspecting the body with a professional eye, hearing the heartbeat stutter, falter, then soon stop. Good.

"Well done," she approved, prodding the corpse with the toe of one boot. "Idiot might have lived, if he hadn't been so damned stubborn about it." But there was little she could do about it now, save for clean up the mess. Which, thankfully, involved hauling the pieces to a nearby dumpster and setting them alight; the ashes would be disposed of by the morning, thanks to London's never-ending rains and fog.

Then she turned around and...

"--you have blood all over you."

Which wasn't really a surprise, given the happenstance, but...he had blood all over him. Natalia licked her lips, and suddenly hated herself for doing it. "...you should...you should...go back home and get cleaned up.."

"Well, yeah, but I figured we'd go together," Bucky says, giving her a sideways look. She'd licked her lips and he wondered, yet again, how the fuck vampires actually worked. He barely knew how he worked much less how vampires and their hierarchy worked. It's complicated shit and he doesn't have time for it, normally. He kinda wishes he had read up on it now.

"Blood from another vamp makes you hungry? I thought it was human or the shit you normally drink and that's it. This is like...I don't know, I figured it smelled awful like I do to you. I mean, it smells terrible to me and normally I don't mind the scent of blood."

Makes him hungry, usually.

"It's not the blood..."

Without realizing she'd done it, Natalia had wandered a little closer, almost near enough to touch, and it wasn't so much the blood as it was that blood was covering his skin... And her mouth watered. She'd never, in all of her life, fed from a human or any other living source; not even during sex had she pierced skin with her teeth.

There was attraction here; animal magnetism, predatory inclination, or whatever term Darwin might choose, and the sight and scent of blood only acerbated it. The vampire suddenly gripped the lycanthrope's sleeve in sharp claws, held him still, and fastened her lips to his throat, licking a slow stripe through the rivulets of red staining his flesh.

Blood on her tongue, Natalia slowly closed her eyes and hissed in pleasure, sharp fangs pricking her lower lip, and nearly purred as she swallowed. "...it's not the blood," she murmured in an alto gone dark with desire. "...it's the taste.."

Aside from the fact that Natalia could murder him and leave him in the alley with the strig, Bucky thought this was pretty fucking hot. It's clear the blood is doing it for her (or the taste, anyway) and feeling her tongue against his skin makes him want something other than...this.

"Doll, you wanna tap the source later, I'm all for it but we probably need to clean this kill up and get out of here. Clean up now, fang fun later."

Since when is he the rational one?

Disgusted with herself - such a lack of control - Natalia abruptly shoved away, rubbing at her mouth with the back of one hand and shaking her head in firm negation. "Just...fetch the bastard's head, will you?" The corpse she picked up with one hand, dragging the inert mass of flesh and bone to a nearby garbage bin, dumping it in with an inelegant thop.

When the head joined the rest, she lit a rag and tossed it into the heap, taking grim satisfaction in seeing the remains immediately come alight, incinerating the threat and leaving damned little evidence. "They're all so bloody stupid," she muttered, almost to herself, watching the flames leap happily. "Just--obey the damned Laws. Is that so goddamned hard?"

"They think they're the kings of the world," Bucky says quietly, more reflective than he usually is. "They want to piss on everything because they think they're the top of the food chain and that following rules are for the sheep."

He isn't just talking about the strig, unfortunately, and he's suddenly glad he's covered in blood so they have a reason to go home and continue this conversation elsewhere.

"How do you want me to clean myself up? I know you don't want bloodstains in your townhouse. Do I gotta go out back while you hose me down?"

She waited until the last embers died down before flicking a glance over at her companion. "...there's a service door that leads into the basement from the back yard. You can...change down there, and throw those clothes right into the washer." Natalia trusted he wouldn't fingerpaint his way along the wallpaper from the basement to the upstairs shower.

Her lip did curl, however, at his mention of the hose. "I'll only hose you down if you get too riled, Barnes. Kick your mongrel ass then turn the firehose on you." But it was said without heat, and the vampire turned without another word to head back across town. There were still two more stops on the docket for the evening, after all.

Once they'd made it back to her residence, and Natalia had pointed out the exterior entrance, she told him, "I'm heading across the river to the warehouse. If you can find the place after you're clean, join me. There shouldn't be any more bloodshed, so it might be...boring." Part of her job was investigative, after all; she didn't get to play at murder all the time.

"I'll leave the light on for you, darlin', and you just get home when you're done. I'll do the laundry, clean up, have you a cup of tea and something else to drink if you want it."

Bucky winks at her before tossing her a half-hearted salute and bounds off, thinking it's better he gets back to the townhouse sooner rather than later. She's got work to do and he needs to manage to get all this goddamn blood off without messing anything up.

And damn if he doesn't succeed, even if he's in a shower that's hot enough to give a human third degree burns and probably is knocking out the whole hot water tank for the next day.

About an hour before dawn, Natalia returned home tired, cranky, and completely out of sorts. Her other two assignments hadn't gone nearly as well as the first, and she was more than ready to bite some idiot's head completely off if anyone pricked her simmering ire. She hated being frustrated, in any sense or fashion, and didn't bother announcing her presence when she finally made it through her front door.

Her coat she slung at the wall rack, missed, and didn't care, but she did, at least, take more care with the weapons, placing each in its proper place in her hunting station just off the kitchen. The knives were delicate, and expensive. But she was hungry, grouchy, and in need of a long, cool sleep, although from the chiming of her cell phone, that wasn't in her immediate future.

Unless she shoved the damned thing in the waste disposal and ignored it altogether. Which was tempting, really.

Bucky hears her when she comes in because he always hears her, no matter how quiet a vampire is. He slips down to the kitchen and looking at her face, he thinks it's probably a good thing that he'd tugged on his boxers instead of walking around feral like he does when he thinks he can get a rise out of her.

"You look fucking miserable, Red. Shoulda brought me along for the other two. Made you tea but you didn't come in so...went to waste, I guess."

He pushes himself up to sit on the counter and assesses her. "Got something else you can drink, though."

She finally went ahead and flung the offending mobile device across the living room, uncaring that it shattered against the wall and clattered into flimsy pieces behind the couch. Hearing the wolf emerge into the kitchen, Natalia just harrumphed in response, not bothering to point out that she had, in fact, told him he could join her if he wished, but there wouldn't be any mauling, biting, or marking on her latter two jobs. Thus, no surprise he'd found them less than attractive.

Grunting at the mention of tea, the vampire went about the automatic motions of making a cup for herself, opting for the Keurig rather than the kettle, this time.

She glowered since she had to move around him to reach into the cabinet, all too aware of the half-naked - more than, actually - slab of male on her counter, looking far too appetizing and smelling like...nothing she wanted to ponder about, really. Lest she give in to...baser desires, in her apparently weakness.

"I don't want it," she replied shortly, automatically, tapping fingernails against the counter as she waited for the mug to hurry the fuck up and fill.

"Liar," Bucky says. "You can't bite me because of your laws and shit and you apparently don't take requests so...here."

There's a knife block next to him, too, and it's nothing to grab it lightning-fast and slice open his wrist. It'll heal fast and without a mark but then she's not breaking any rules, is she?

"Here. Lick. That's not biting."

Her lip derisively curled despite the enticing scent of his blood, welling deep and thick from the self-inflicted gash. "What, you think you just wave your paper cut under my nose and I fall to my knees in thanks? Please, dog." Despite their amicable partnership earlier, Natalia wasn't in the best mood, and having her housemate determined to get her in no end of trouble wasn't helping very much.

"I'm going to take my tea and go to bed, and that's the end of it." She gave his bleeding arm only the barest glance before turning her back on him. "You can bandage it yourself, or whatever." The Keurig finished and she retrieved her tea mug, adding cream and stirring. "And don't you dare wake me up today, otherwise I'll bounce your admittedly nice ass off the flagstones and leave you for the pigeons, Barnes."

"I'd let you rip open my femoral if you wanted it," Bucky says, popping himself off the counter. His wound's shallow enough that it's already started to knit together again and he knows there's barely going to be a mark by evening when she wakes up.

"Maybe it's against your rules but I'm not human, Red Riding Hood. You can sink your teeth into the big, bad wolf any time you want to and I'm not going to say no. You licking me in the alley earlier was the hottest shit I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Looked like it did it for you, too, so - why not enjoy it?"

"Because you'd lord it over me from now until the end of time," Natalia replied tartly, taking a soft sip of her hot tea then putting down the mug to unzip her uniform top and skin it off, absently on the table. Her skin was milk white against the black halter she still wore, and she pulled the ponytail out of her hair, crimson curls tumbling down her back in disarray.

"I had a moment of weakness, a moment," she reiterated, picking up her tea again, "and you just naturally assume I'm going to fall on the first open vein I see, how very typical." The refrigerator door slammed as she closed it, changing her mind about opening a fresh plasma pack. Not with all that deliciousness standing less than a yard away.

"For what it's worth," and how her teeth ground, forcing the words out, "I completely regret...licking at you earlier. I shouldn't have done it, and shouldn't have let my baser emotions get the better of me. So. Let it be, Barnes." She held her tea cup between them, like a shield.

"You don't like me, and I don't like you. Let's just leave it at that, da?"

"If I didn't like you, I wouldn't respect you," Bucky says matter-of-factly. He starts to walk off, convinced this was just a draw and not a victory for her against him and just as he reaches the doorway, he turns and looks back at her.

She's a pretty sight, all that pale skin on display where that halter isn't covering her. Not as much skin as he shows but the most he's seen of her and he has to reward that.

"Your bed's a mess. I told you I was waiting on you to come home. Wrapped myself up like a bow and you walked in too late for it. Shame."

She froze at those words, not quite believing what she'd heard. When she could finally manage enough coherence to speak, the wolf had slipped out of the kitchen and back up the stairs. The teacup landed in the sink, thankfully, as the vampire all but vanished herself, nearly teleporting upstairs to throw open her bedroom door, inhale a deep breath of James Bucky Barnes in her sanctum, and swallow a truly undignified screech.

The door across the hall bounced back on its hinges as Natalia threw it open, and she kept a firm grip on her temper as she glared at the lycanthropic intruder. "What." Each word was clipped, sharp. "Were you doing. In my bed?" Not that his scent in her nose was an unpleasant thing, not really (if she were totally honest with herself), but his scent on her sheets was just goddamned unfair.

"Waiting for you to come and do depraved things with me at my request. Could have tied me up and everything. I would have been the best little wolf you've ever seen," Bucky says, his eyes meeting hers. She's furious but damn he can tell he's gotten under her skin.

"I was a little lamb waiting to get gobbled up. You just didn't show up when I thought you were gonna so I decided it'd be better to just sit downstairs and wait for you. The licking went well so I thought you'd want the whole thing. Lots of places to bite me, after all."

He leers at her. "Why are you so against it?"

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